Counseling Commons^™

Addressing The Inconsistencies In Counselor Skill Development And Measurement Through Deliberate Practice And Assessment Tools, Zach Budesa

Doctoral Dissertations

Counselor educators and supervisors have an ethical duty to monitor client welfare and student counselor development, but the tools and processes programs put in place may miss the mark. This dissertation proposes deliberate practice and assessment improvement as avenues for counselor educators to leverage existing skills and resources for the benefit of clients and students. In the first manuscript, deliberate practice is proposed as a framework which can unify the various methods and teaching practices which have proliferated over the history of counselor education. This manuscript reviews the literate surrounding counselor skill development and deliberate practice and provides examples of …

Reflections On Living Gender In Prison: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Amanda Marie Simms

Doctoral Dissertations

Gender Dysphoria was introduced as a new mental health diagnosis in the Diagnostic Statistics Manual-5 (DSM-5) as of 2013 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). As a result of this addition and the lack of attention to identities other than transgender, there is a paucity of data related to the lived experience of the broader category of other than cisgender inmates. An estimated an approximate number of 1.4 million transgender individuals in the United States and other than cisgender individuals make up between 25-35% of the transgender population (Herman et al., 2016; Webb et al., 2016). Additionally, 16% of gender minorities have …

Veteran Social Network: Peer Support Impact On Mental Health Service Utilization, Stacy A. Harris

Dissertations

Of the 20 million US Veterans, approximately 30% receive health care benefits from the Veterans Affairs system. Research confirms that these Veterans are less likely to seek professional mental health services as a result of a belief that mental illness equates with weakness. Research on peer support with Veterans suggests that Veteran social networks reduce stigma and facilitate help seeking behavior. Most studies on Veteran help seeking for mental health services use subjects who receive health care from the Veterans Health Administration or Department of Defense. The purpose of the current study is to gain an understanding of Veterans who …

Toward A Gender-Responsive, Participatory Community-Based Child Protection System – Lessons From Victim-Survivors And Service Providers Of A Safe Home And A Community In The Philippines, Gundelina Velazco

Human Trafficking: Data and Documents

This research project gathered from victims, survivors and community people their experience and knowledge of sexual exploitation and trafficking of children, their perception of circumstances that lead to exploitation, as well as measures that can stop it. From their responses, the aim was to formulate a framework of a gender responsive, participatory community-based child protection system, test this framework, and formulate a position statement based on the findings and lessons learned.

A survey instrument with content, age, and gender validation and a communityvalidated checklist of indicators of being sexually exploited, were the tools used to gather data from victims and …

Legacy Trail: Photovoice Of African American/Black Women Ces Doctoral Graduates Persistence, Andrea M. Garraway

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative study examined the retrospective experiences of seven African American/Black (AA/Black) women who graduated from a Counselor Education and Supervision (CES) doctoral program, accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP). The purpose of the study was to investigate ancestral links to their persistence. This study obtained data from semi-structured individual interviews, a focus group, and PhotoVoice pursuit. Through these different methods of data collection, the validity of the study was increased. The research problem identified was that the CES doctoral degree attrition rate remains stagnated (approximately 50%) and the rate for AA/Black women …

Racial Identity, Masculinity, And Academic Help-Seeking Behaviors In African American Male College Students, Walter T. Malone

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Black racial identity attitudes, as measured by the Cross Racial Identity Scale (CRIS), and masculine norms, as measured by the Conformity to Masculinity Norms Index -46 (CMNI-46), in relation to men's academic helpseeking behavior. Participants were 120 African American undergraduate males at a historically White university in the Midwest region of the United States. Four hypotheses were designed to help guide the measure's influences on two academic help-seeking variables, avoidance and perceived benefits. The first and second hypotheses both focused on the effects of Black college men's racial attitudes. …

Alcohol Use In Women: Resources And Recommendations For Counselors, Samantha Haling

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

The research shows that alcohol use is rising rapidly among women, resulting in devastating consequences that have not been sufficiently explored in counselor education and training. This paper aims to address this by providing a review of the literature which shows that women are more vulnerable to many of the physical and mental health consequences of alcohol use than men, and that they have unique treatment needs and face gender-specific risk factors and barriers to treatment. The review examines the interaction between gender and alcohol use, summarizes the existing research on the physical and behavioral health consequences of alcohol use …

Minority Adolescents And School Referral: The Importance Of School Counselors And The Referral System, Samantha Jo Davis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate a school-based referral system in northwest Missouri that is effectively able to identify students with mental health concerns, help students find treatment options, and provide any follow-up needed. The main focus in this qualitative case study was on what makes one school district in northwest Missouri have an effective and successful mental health referral system. The theory guiding this study was Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This motivational theory is a five-tier model of human needs, including physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Without having all these needs met, an …

Sexual Identity, Mental, Emotional, And Religious Stability: A Phenomenological Study Exploring The Religious Lived Experiences Of Heterosexual Men Who Once Identified As Gay Or Bisexual, Mccay Martin Moiforay

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study aims are to fill the gap in research with regards to how to successfully provide religious support to men who once identified as gay or bisexual, who currently identify as heterosexual and religious. The research purpose is to share these men lived experiences regarding their sexual identity journey from gay or bisexual to heterosexual within the religious setting. The research plans to help understand what religious support is needed to provide those who desire sexual identity change from gay or bisexual to heterosexual and how this same religious support can be used in maintaining their heterosexual identity. These …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Attitude Of Church Attending Caribbean-Canadian Christians Toward Counseling, Melbourne Webster Turgott

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the attitude of church-attending Caribbean-Canadian Christians toward counseling. The two central research questions were, What is the lived experience of Caribbean-Canadian church-attending Christians with counseling? What meaning do Caribbean-Canadian church-attending Christians ascribe to their experience with counseling? The theories guiding this study included expectancy-value and social learning theories. Expectancy-value theory amplifies the belief Caribbean-Canadian Christians have a favorable attitude toward counseling if it aligns with their Christian beliefs. Social learning theory supports the idea that Caribbean-Canadian Christians are shaped by their communal and individual experiencing the world. Data were …

The Relationship Among Religiosity, Childhood Sexual Abuse, And God Attachment On The Development Of Sexual Shame, Derek James Parker

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Religiosity is a very important component to an individual’s overall wellness. Religiosity is typically formed early in life through family religious patterns and expectations. While religiosity may be a protective and healthy component of oneself, it is possible that religiosity may also contribute negatively and enhance maladaptive thoughts. Previous research has explored childhood family religiosity and current religiosity and their relationships with the development of sexual shame. This study aims at continuing to explore the relationship of childhood family religiosity and current religiosity and their relationship to the development of sexual shame. Additionally, childhood sexual abuse and a perceived relationship …

A Study Concerning Factors That Contribute To School Counselors' Self-Efficacy, Cory J. Neal

MSU Graduate Theses

Many school districts and states still require that school counselors have previous teaching experience before one can begin a career in school counseling. There is little to no data to support these claims and the data that is available does not include how the school counselor’s own previous experiences influence their self-efficacy in their current roles. The data for this study was collected through an online survey sent to school counselors in Missouri. The qualitative data was evaluated using a grounded theory approach while the quantitative data was analyzed through a series of t-tests for independent samples, with group membership …

Non-Affirmation As A Moderator Between Social Support And Quality Of Life For Transgender Populations, Michael Evitts

Dissertations

This research builds upon scholarship exploring the quality of life of transgender populations. Knowledge on quality-of-life (QOL) for transgender populations has been limited due to the fact that most studies have focused on gender affirming medical procedures as interventions (Nobili et al., 2018). Other protective factors, such as social support, have been identified in the literature but have been defined in broad terms. The purpose of the study was to better understand additional factors that promote QOL and psychological well-being, specifically social support. It is unclear how non-affirmation of gender identity affects the protective effects of social support for QOL. …

Entitlement At School: Linking Noncompliance To Academic Entitlement, Lili Michelle Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This work examined the relationship between academic entitlement and noncompliance among college students using trauma or adverse childhood experiences to moderate the relationship. Additionally, this study explored how gender, enrollment type (full-time vs. part-time), and type of student (residential vs. online) impacted noncompliance. This study was comprised of 149 participants from Liberty University that were at least 18+ years of age and an undergraduate or graduate student. Using a quantitative research design, participants completed the following self-report measures: demographics questionnaire, HEXACO-PI-R personality domains honesty-humility, and Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey. Logistic regression analyses were conducted, and the results of the study …

The Results Of Child Sexual Abuse And How They Can Be Mitigated, Joy Buchman

Counselor Education Capstones

This review of literature sought to compile a list, albeit not exhaustive, of short and long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and several types of play therapy used to effectively mitigate these effects. CSA has a long reaching impact affecting a child’s well-being, a nation’s societal health in addition to having a massive financial impact worldwide. Some children who are sexually abused do not struggle with negative effects and others are impacted for a lifetime. Some effects of CSA are developmental, cognitive, physical and psychological. These effects can impact the way a child views themselves, adults and the world. …

Narratives Of Distinctiveness Or Similarity And Connection - A Response To Korman, De Jong And Jordan’S Steve De Shazer’S Theory Development, Guy Shennan

Journal of Solution Focused Practices

In 2020 the Journal of Solution Focused Practices published an article called Steve de Shazer’s Theory Development. This surveyed the whole of de Shazer’s career, which the authors divided into four phases, from which they distilled six axioms they believe are foundational to de Shazer’s thinking and practice. In their commentary on the six axioms there is a considerable emphasis on the distinctiveness of SFBT, which the authors are keen to establish as different, in each of its foundational aspects, from most or perhaps all other therapies. This article is a response to this particular aspect of Steve de Shazer’s …

The Intentionality Of Confronting Racism, Systemic Oppression, And Cyclical Trauma In Counselor Education: A Self Study, Kara Ieva, Michael D. Hannon, Linwood G. Vereen

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Utilizing self-study methodology, the researchers sought to understand their practices in developing school counselors and counselor educators who acknowledge and resist anti-Black racism and marginalization to prevent harm through complacency. Given counselor education’s existence as overwhelmingly white and Eurocentric, the authors investigate disrupting the heteronormative structures inherent in counseling and the academy with the prioritizing of race, systemic inequities, and cyclical trauma in their faculty roles (e.g., teaching, supervising, and service) in efforts to shift a profession slow to address society’s ever-changing mental health needs. The team of counselor educators from different states in the northeast use a thematic analysis …

School Counselors Involvement And Opportunities To Advocate Against Racialized Punitive Practices, Edwin Hernandez, Enrique Espinoza, Jewel Patterson

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Given the increase of violence against Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), there is no doubt a need to tackle racialized violence in schools. This phenomenological study draws on semi-structured interviews with school counselors to explore their experiences and practices to disrupt the racialized disciplinary practices that disproportionally target Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color. We draw on theories of racialized organizations and organizational routines to better understand how school counselors make sense of their practices in racialized disciplinary practices that dehumanize and criminalized youth of color. Findings from this study revealed two themes: 1) school counselors’ perceived neutrality towards …

A Womanist Supervision Framework For Promoting Anti-Racist Therapy With Black Women, Camellia V. Green, Danielle E. Burton

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

A counselor’s anti-racist disposition is particularly needed for Black woman clients due to unique treatment needs. Womanist values and pedagogy are used to develop a culturally-responsive supervision framework encompassing key themes of anti-racist supervisee development such as critical consciousness development, awareness of power dynamics, social justice activism and honoring the cultural self. Womanist pedagogy, previously used in K-12 schools, prioritizes the community orientation of maternal care to promote the survival of Black people in oppressive systems. A call to action for counselor educators is introduced for the promotion of an anti-racist supervisee disposition. Keywords: anti-racist, supervision, Womanist, critical consciousness

Equipping School Counselors For Antiracist Healing Centered Groups: A Critical Examination Of Preparation, Connected Curricula, Professional Practice And Oversight, Kara P. Ieva, Jordon Beasley, Sam Steen

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

This paper highlights the potential for school counselors to promote antiracist practices and racial healing engagement utilizing small group counseling to ultimately eliminate inequities in schools. However, counselor educator programs, founded on middle to upper class white ideals, worldviews, and narrowly focused theoretical frameworks, currently function in ways that fail to equip future school counselors with the group facilitation knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for equitable practice in schools across the nation using case illustrations and a broad current literature review, the authors conceptualize the rationale for more competencies beyond group course assignment, clinical requirements (e.g., CACREP standards, 2016), practice, …

Toward A Voice-Centered Relational Anti-Racist Listening Praxis In Counselor Education, Michelle R. Bertrand

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Abstract This article outlines key elements of an anti-racist listening praxis in counselor education. It demonstrates how racism in relationships of teaching and learning impacts racialized subjectivities, and the personal, cultural and ancestral worlds these subjectivities articulate, in a way that limits the capacity of racialized practitioners to be relational subjects and uses them instead to reinforce White/Western normativity. It describes a way of both listening to and challenging these impacts by re-centering the “I” of racialized speakers and the personal, cultural and traditional knowledges, identities and preferred ways of being to which they refer in their stories. Examples of …

Self-Care: An Ethical Imperative For Anti-Racist Counselor Training, Michelle Mitchell, Erin Binkley

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Attention has been given to multicultural counseling, social justice and advocacy work over the last several decades; with this in mind, it is essential Counselors educators work as anti-racist change agents to understand the role of self-care in advocacy and be armed with self-care strategies based upon racial identity standing. Working through the lens of racial identity development models, educators will learn ways to support students of the dominant culture in engaging in self-care without initiating oppressive behaviors, and conversely will learn strategies to assist Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color (BIPOC) in enacting self-care without assisting in their own oppression. …

The Case For A Core Anti-Racist Course For Counselors In Training, Ileana A. Gonzalez Ph.D., Raven K. Cokley Ph.D.

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Historically, counseling programs in the United States have been rooted in whiteness and white supremacy. Despite this historical context, counseling programs fail to teach students about the varied ways that anti-Blackness and systemic racism show up in society, classrooms, and clinical settings. Given the systemic murders of Black folks by the state, the health disparities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the refusal of white voters to abandon white supremacist patriarchy in the 2020 presidential election, the counseling field must reconsider how it prepares trainees to embrace anti-racism in their personal and professional lives. The purpose of this article is …

Promoting Anti-Racism And Critical Consciousness Through A Critical Counseling Theories Course, Jyotsana Sharma, Carlos P. Hipolito-Delgado

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

Racism is alive and well in the United States. To promote critical consciousness and anti-racism in counselors-in-training, the counseling theories course, typically a student’s introduction to the profession, requires revision. Thus, we propose a critical counseling theories course. In this course we argue critical theories (multicultural theory, social constructivism, feminist theory, and critical race theory) and neurocounseling theory should be centered; introducing theories that are relevant to our current sociopolitical reality and that promote the values of anti-racism in the counseling profession. In this article we describe the critical counseling theories course structure, instructional approach, and assignments. Data from student …

Antiracist School Counselor Preparation: Expanding On The Five Tenets Of The Transforming School Counseling Initiative, Erin Mason, Adrianne Robertson, Jan Gay, Nkenji Clarke, Cheryl Holcomb-Mccoy

Teaching and Supervision in Counseling

As a profession, school counseling must serve as an active force against systemic racism, and school counselor preparation must equip future professionals as antiracist agents of change. This article expands the original Transforming School Counseling Initiative (TSCI) tenets that sought to re-envision school counselor preparation in the late 1990s with language that explicitly supports antiracism. The authors offer a definition of antiracist school counseling and sample assignments and experiences that align with the revised tenets.

A Thin Line Of Social Justice: Challenges And Changes In Navigating Relations Of Power In Graduate Schools Of Education, Heather Catherine Sands

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

This dissertation brings together three qualitative research articles to interrogate a disjuncture between curriculum development in graduate schools of education and the relations of power it fosters in teacher education and counselor education. In applying biopower and intersectional analyses throughout each article, this dissertation contends that the recognition of power relations within these fields helps to highlight hegemonic patterns of teaching and counseling that occur in settings of classrooms and sessions. Three themes emerged within this dissertation: resistance, community, and subjectivity. Article One demonstrates a gap between teachers and school counselors with cyberbullying directed toward LGBTQ+ students. The Article leverages …

Spring 2021 Full Issue, Journal Of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research Education, And Practice Jcssw

Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education

No abstract provided.

Book Review: What Every Mental Health Professional Needs To Know About Sex, 2nd Ed., By Stephanie Buehler, Laura R. Haddock

Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education

The ability to understand and address sexuality issues is a critical skill set for all mental health professionals. This comprehensive review of the second edition of \textit{What Every Mental Health Professional Needs to Know About Sex} includes an overview of the contents with emphasis on the strengths and weaknesses of the text. Written by Stephanie Beuhler, a licensed psychologist and AASECT certified sex therapist and supervisor, the contents are educational, promote increased self-awareness for the reader, and facilitate insight into the lived experiences of clients while also providing practical and useful exercises and resources that are valuable regardless of a …

Deconstructing Sexual Shame: Implications For Clinical Counselors And Counselor Educators, Stacey Diane A. Litam, Megan Speciale

Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education

Although clients often seek treatment for sexuality-related concerns, counselors may lack the competence, comfort, and skills to adequately address these issues. Counselors may address these treatment barriers by developing a sex-affirming counseling framework. The following article outlines the importance of deconstructing sexual shame within clinical counseling settings and provides specific strategies to enhance the sexual empowerment of clients.

Sex Is Not A Four-Letter Word: Sexuality Counseling Training For School Counselors, Wynn N. Dupkoski, Viki Kelchner, Amber S. Haley

Journal of Counseling Sexology & Sexual Wellness: Research, Practice, and Education

Although sexuality counseling training is not a requirement for Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) accredited Counselor Education programs or for licensure in most states as a professional counselor, there is increasing dialogue taking place among professional counselors regarding the need for additional training in this area. The current article highlights techniques for incorporating and enhancing sexuality counseling training in Counselor Education programs based on the eight CACREP core competencies. After a review of the relevance of sexuality counseling within each area, with attention given to implications for school counselors.